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Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on
his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog Entertainment Weekly got an exclusive “first look” at the new cast of the revived “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” which was shot earlier this year in metro Atlanta and will
be released on Netflix in February, 2018. The five are
Karamo...

Kelly Clarkson did an abbreviated 14-song set for the Star 94.1 Christmas concert at the new Coca-Cola Roxy December 12, 2017.
CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on
his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog Kelly Clarkson, with a new album on a new label, is doing just a handful of Christmas dates before a full-fledged tour...

The original Bon Jovi lineup, back in the days when induction into the Rock Hall was a distant dream. BY MELISSA RUGGIERI/AJC Music Scene The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has its list of musical luminaries to be inducted in 2018. Bon Jovi (including original member
Richie Sambora),
The Cars, Dire Straits, The Moody Blues and
Nina Simone will enter the hall in the...

Anderson Cooper was surprised to read his own Twitter feed this morning. A post from his official, verified account took aim at
President Donald Trump using language at odds with the CNN personality’s demeanor. He and CNN have subsequently said an investigation is underway into what happened. MORE:
Trump’s Twitter war with CNN Here’s what...

Hold on to your seat – and watch your wallet. Over the next two weeks, federal and state authorities are planning to vote
on controversial measures that may affect your utility bills, taxes, internet speeds and children’s access to healthcare. Dec. 14 – The FCC votes on whether to repeal net neutrality rules enacted under the Obama administration. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai...

Democrats are relishing a rare victory this morning. And Republicans? They’re wondering if they can tack on a few extra months after Dec. 31 to keep 2018
from arriving. Here’s the official word from the Associated Press: In a stunning victory aided by scandal, Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama’s special Senate election, beating back history, an
embattled...

Doug Jones’ victory over
Roy Moore
in the U.S. Senate race has director
Ava DuVernay pondering a sequel to the movie “Selma” and has nearly restored actress and author
Chelsea Handler’s faith in God. Alyssa Milano, who campaigned in Georgia for
Jon Ossoff (who lost to
Karen Handel in the special...

Alabama Republican Roy Moore stares at election returns as they come in Tuesday night. (AP) Politics is a game of addition and subtraction. In Alabama on Tuesday, Democrats did the adding, turning out their voters
in numbers well above expectations. Election officials had predicted a total turnout of 25 percent but instead got 40 percent,
and a lot of those were supporters...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has tangled with several of his Cabinet secretaries, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson and former health chief Tom Price. But one high-ranking official who has yet to draw the public ire
of the commander-in-chief is Sonny Perdue. The agriculture secretary and former Georgia governor at least...

Doug Jones speaks during a campaign rally on Sunday. (AP Photo / Brynn Anderson) We now have an answer to the question, what does it take for the Republicans to lose in a deep-red state like Alabama? But
be careful, because it’s a longer answer than you might expect. Start with a special election to replace a senator (who seems to be in constant danger of being fired from his new...

Republican Clay Tippins. Campaign photo. Republican political newcomer Clay Tippins is presenting himself as the sole true outsider in next year’s race for Georgia governor, hoping to borrow a page from the
same playbook that helped David Perdue win a U.S. Senate seat in 2014. Tippins, an Atlanta businessman and former U.S. Navy SEAL,
announced his campaign in November...

Every now and then you see a sliver of sunshine and know there’s hope for humanity. Last weekend on our local Google group, a lady warned the neighborhood that “three teenage boys are throwing snow balls at passing cars and people. Including older women.” A self-identified “older woman” chimed in, saying she’d retaliate if so attacked, which is what you want to...

Imagine if the surroundings in “The Wizard of Oz”’s Munchkin Land fused with the backdrop of “Alice in Wonderland” and you
might have the Katy Perry “Witness” tour. It’s a delightful spectacle to behold
– from the five-piece band dressed in cupcake-frosting pink to the see-sawing lighted cubes to the massive eye-shaped...

Pat DiNizio. BY MELISSA RUGGIERI/AJC Music Scene Pat DiNizio, frontman for alt-rock-pop band The Smithereens has died at the age of 62. The band
posted the news on its Facebook page
shortly after midnight Wednesday: It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Pat DiNizio, lead singer and songwriter of the influential New Jersey
...

Doug Jones and Roy Moore. AP file. Democrat Doug Jones scored a once-unthinkable victory, several media outlets projected Tuesday, winning a U.S. Senate seat in deep-red Alabama fueled by a surge in turnout
and a wave of Republicans who couldn’t support former judge Roy Moore’s candidacy after he was accused of sexual misconduct. Jones pulled off the upset by scoring huge margins...

Atlanta mayoral candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms on election night. BRANDEN CAMP/SPECIAL The 2017 race for mayor of Atlanta is over. And yet it continues. The election boards of Fulton and DeKalb counties have declared Keisha Lance Bottoms to be mayor-elect, on a slim runoff margin
of 832 votes out of more than 90,000 cast. The defeated Mary Norwood is entitled to a recount, and is expected...

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday hinted that vast changes to federal food stamps, one of the biggest safety
net programs under his purview, could be on the way. The former Georgia governor said the purpose of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was to help needy people
pay for their groceries on a temporary basis — not permanently...

TLC show Family By the Ton Posted by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 Georgia is only 20th in the country among states with the highest obesity rate, but a trio of morbidly obese Georgia-based family members are featured in a new TLC show called “Family by the Ton,” an off-shoot
of its popular show...

(AP) Read this, because the distinctions that it draws are important and well put: “There’s a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people…. You cannot
say that it’s an honest mistake when you’re purposefully putting out information that you know to be false, or when you’re
taking...

Gov. Nathan Deal. BOB ANDRES /BANDRES@AJC.COM A report released Tuesday by a commission created by Gov. Nathan Deal is likely to create a framework for funding and legislative proposals that would
expand mental health services and target opioid abuse in Georgia. The Commission on Children’s Mental Health’s report recommended an expansion of a state program for school-based...

Steve Bannon speaks in support of U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore during a campaign rally on Monday in Midland City, Ala.
AP/Brynn Anderson For his last event of the campaign, former Alabama chief justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore imported a host of conservative activists,
including U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, former Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke...

Posted Tuesday, December 12, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on
his AJC Radio & TV Talk Oops. I forgot to finish this by yesterday. So the Monday listings are already out of date. My apologies. The rest of the week includes some more holiday specials by the likes of
Gwen Stefani (NBC, Tuesday) and
Taraji P. Henson (Fox, Thursday). And the final original...

Marvel’s latest “Avengers” movie has been filming in Atlanta. Shooting a massive blockbuster is a huge, time-consuming job
but stars
Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and
Chris Hemsworth made space for a little side hustle. The stars are modeling
limited-edition T-shirts
that benefit The Solutions Project...

We are in the throes of another get-rich-quick frenzy that surely will make some people rich and others chumps. Fans of bitcoin contend that it will revolutionize the world of digital currency, taking the place of old-world stuff like dollar bills as a way to pay and be paid. But, at the moment, bitcoin is getting more attention because some people are trading it like an investment that&rsquo...

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the Senate health committee is raising conflict of interest questions about Brenda Fitzgerald, Georgia’s
onetime top health official who now leads the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Fitzgerald’s federal ethics agreement raises doubts about whether she can fully tackle
...

A week or so ago, this place had all the trappings of a little library, dark bookcases filled with all manner of books, tables and chairs sandwiched between a coffee shop and a neighborhood market. But since my visit to the Carver Neighborhood Market, it has been transformed into a winter wonderland, and right about now, I imagine it bustling with hundreds of parents shopping for the perfect toy for...

Former Alabama chief justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks in Vestavia Hills, Ala. AP/Hal Yeager Heflin, Ala. – Alabama voters head to the polls on Tuesday to decide the race for U.S. Senate between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat
Doug Jones, and the outcome is being closely watched across the nation. No Democrat has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama since...

Posted Monday, December 11, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com o
n his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog Pres.
Donald Trump,
displeased by a New York Times story that said he would “hate watch” CNN’s
Don Lemon at night to get worked up
, Tweeted that Lemon is “dumbest man on television!” This standard-issue insult...

I wrote a column a few years ago on differentiated instruction, calling it the coconut oil of education because of all its
fabled curative powers: “It can reduce cholesterol, moisturize your skin and meet the needs of all students, no matter where
they fall in the performance panorama. And make a tasty pie crust, too.” At the time, I heard from defenders of differentiated...

With 24 hours to go before Alabama polls close, today’s edition of
GPB’s “Political Rewind” could help but open on the U.S. Senate race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. One thought cast on the water: Economic development specialists in Georgia must be giddy over the advantage they’ll have over
Alabama in the next fight for...

Posted by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on
his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog on Monday, December 11, 2017 The New York Times recently profiled “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” which has been pulling in strong ratings since he joined the show in May and
is easily beating the third hour of the “Today” show. Here is how the writer described former Atlantan Seacrest...

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI/AJC Music Scene Jeezy is readying the Dec. 15 arrival of his new album, “Pressure,” and has announced a tour to go with it. The Atlanta rapper will launch his 31-city tour in February in California and play his hometown with a March 10 date at the
Tabernacle. Tee Grizzley will guest at all shows. Jeezy will hold a “Cold Summer Tour” 48-hour ticket...

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI/AJC Music Scene Kesha and Macklemore have teamed for a tour that will play the newly renamed Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood on Aug. 2. Tickets for the show will go on sale at noon Dec. 15 via
www.livenation.com. A Citi card presale will run from noon Dec. 13 to 10 p.m. Dec. 14 through Citi’s Private Pass program (
www.citiprivatepass.com). The...

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 21: Channing Tatum arriving at the ‘Logan Lucky’ UK premiere held at Vue West End on August 21, 2017
in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) Posted Monday, December 11, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc,com
on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog The creators of “Archer,” who are based here in Atlanta, are...

(AP)
Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump’s second favorite president, has left us a colorful political legacy that includes the term “kitchen
cabinet,” applied initially to the group of informal advisers that Jackson often turned to for support.
Trump has his own version of Jackson’s kitchen cabinet, in...

State Reps. Joe Mack Wilson, D-Marietta, and Sam Nunn, D-Perry, later a U.S. senator from Georgia, examine maps showing the
new boundaries of legislative districts in 1971. AJC file That holiday crisis is bearing down, again, and the impossible decision looms: What to get the political nerd in your life. Amazon.com and I are here to help, with a quartet of new books that delve into...

The Center on Education Policy at George Washington University surveyed state leaders on the Every Student Succeeds Act, the
sequel to No Child Less Behind.
Enacted two years ago as an antidote to the overly prescriptive No Child, ESSA provides states with more freedom and flexibility to determine education policy and practice. ESSA eliminated the “failure to make...

Democratic senatorial candidate Doug Jones (Center, L) arrives with U.S. Rep.Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker,
D-N.J., (L-R) at a Jones field office on Sunday in Birmingham. Joe Raedle/Getty Images We’re 24 hours and change away from settling the Alabama race for U.S. Senate,
which could very well set the tone for the 2018 election cycle. Republican...